Unlike the tale of Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned, which is likely apocryphal, there is proof that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) was living it up at a cocktail party while fire consumed her city.
The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that Bass was busy hobnobbing and posing for photos at a Jan. 7 embassy cocktail party in Ghana as thick columns of smoke rose above Los Angeles.
There has been significant outrage already over the Democratic mayor’s questionable decisions, not only to slash her city’s fire department budget but to break a pledge not to “travel internationally” by absconding to Africa days after the National Weather Service warned of an imminent windstorm and then remaining overseas after the NWS underscored that the windstorm could be “life-threatening, destructive,” and widespread.
A spokesman for Bass told the L.A. Times, whose owner expressed regret Monday about his paper’s previous endorsement of the mayor, that the U.S. ambassador to Ghana, Virginia Evelyn Palmer, hosted the party. Afterward, Bass and others who traveled to Ghana to attend the inauguration of President John Dramani Mahama apparently jumped on a military plane headed back to smoldering Los Angeles.
‘Mayor Bass has been absent from the frontlines, choosing to travel abroad while her constituents suffer.’
The Times noted that a partygoer’s watch in photos of the event posted to LinkedIn by city staffer Marissa Bowman helped confirm that Bass was posing for photos around noon Los Angeles time — within minutes of the issuance of evacuation orders in the Pacific Palisades.
Photos shared to Instagram by Ghanaian emcee Nathaniel Attoh similarly hinted at the good time had by Bass as the first of over 40,695 acres in Los Angeles County burned.
Bass spokesman Zach Seidl claimed that for the majority of the swanky cocktail party, “the mayor was in a different room on calls from L.A.”
Bass apparently did not provide the Times with comment.
The Times noted that Brian Williams, Bass’ deputy mayor who oversaw the fire department, was similarly missing in action, as he was on leave after allegedly making a bomb threat against City Hall.
Amid growing concerns about her competence, Bass now faces a growing recall effort. A petition to recall Bass “due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to the devastating 2025 fires in and around the city of Los Angeles” on Change.org has already netted over 147,500 signatures.
The petition states, “Families have been displaced, homes destroyed, and livelihoods shattered — yet Mayor Bass has been absent from the frontlines, choosing to travel abroad while her constituents suffer.”
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